1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to carpeting tack strips and, more particularly, to an apparatus for attaching such a tack strip to a support structure (e.g., a wood or concrete floor).
2. General Background of the Invention
In the installation of carpet (e.g., wall to wall), side portions (or peripheral edges) of the carpet are typically anchored to a floor or other appropriate support structure upon which they are installed by employing what is known in the art as a “tack strip”. A tack strip is generally an elongated length of material (e.g., wood or metal) that may be placed along the edge portion of a floor and then anchored to the floor by means of nails or other appropriate fasteners. After these tack strips have been anchored to the floor, the carpet is generally held in place by a plurality of brads associated with the tack strip to thereby hold the carpet, prevent its removal, and/or prevent the danger of an individual catching a foot on the edge of the carpet when walking across it.
These tack strips are typically installed adjacent walls or wall finishing elements. It is generally accepted that the distance that carpet is installed from the walls and thus the location of the tack strip must be properly dimensioned and marked. However, precise uniform spacing of these strips from and along walls and wall finishing elements can be difficult using conventional installation tools. For instance, some conventional tack strip nailers are equipped with adjustable spacing assemblies so that the same tool may be used regardless of the desired distance of the resultantly installed tack strip. However, due to the amount of shock/vibration associated with operating tack strip nailers, these adjustable spacers tend to undesirably move resulting in spacing variations of the installed tack strips relative to a wall from which they are to be spaced.
Another detriment associated with conventional tack strip nailers tend to have a significant number of exposed metal edges (e.g., sharp corners). Accordingly, use of the same has traditionally coincided with marring of adjacent walls and wall finishing surfaces during tack strip installation. Yet another detriment of these typical tack strip nailers is that they are made up of a significant number of movable parts that are both expensive to manufacture and expensive to assemble into the resultant tack strip nailer.